This Very, Very Heavy Truck Is Too Much for Rhode Island
That’s 280 tons, if you’re counting.
A tractor-trailer with 100 wheels and carrying a 161-ton generator was stopped Thursday in Rhode Island after an employee from the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) spotted it on Interstate 95 in Warwick. The haul is hardly among the heaviest in history, but Rhode Island officials still worry that it could collapse one of several dozens bridges the truck would need cross en route to its destination.
This meant that the truck was stranded on the side of the road before being moved Friday to a nearby parking lot, according to the Warwick Post, while officials figure out what to do. (Update: A spokesman for RIDOT said Monday that the truck is still at the parking lot, and that the situation “likely will not be resolved until Wednesday at the earliest.”)
The truck, which weighs 280 tons in total, was set to deliver the generator to a General Electric facility in Medford, Massachusetts, over a route that includes nearly three dozen bridges in Rhode Island alone, some of which are structurally insufficient.
Bay Crane, the company that owns the truck, told WJAR that they expected to have permits for the trip approved, which is why the truck set off to begin with. (After originating in Quonset Point, the truck got about 10 miles into its journey before it was spotted.)
Now a new route to Medford will have to be determined, and bridges along the way assessed. According to the Warwick Post, the generator is one of 18 General Electric expects for delivery to Medford—meaning that this will be the first of many tests for Rhode Island’s infrastructure.
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